Gary Hooper being tipped for a move to Liverpool or Newcastle

The Premier League Owl

You know how The Metro works by now, they find transfer stories on the internet, copy and paste, and then pass it off as their own work. In their defence, it is a free paper, so why would you expect more?

Gary Hooper is an interesting player. A lower-league (Scunthorpe, Southend) player in England until he signed for Celtic for just over £2m a couple of years ago, he then returned 20 and 24 goals respectively in his first two seasons in the SPL.

The problem obviously for Hooper, is that he won’t really be taken seriously until he comes back across the border - Neil Lennon has claimed that he’s England ready, but in reality he’ll never be picked until he plays in a better league. With all due respect, given the level he’s been playing at, he could just be another David Nugent - there’s really no way of telling.

Anyway, The Metro claim that ‘promises have been broken by the Celtic hierarchy’ - watever that means - and that the player is now actively seeking a move. They don’t include any quantification of Newcastle or Liverpool’s interest, so this very much seems to be on a ‘because they say so’ basis. Reliable.

Obviously Liverpool are shopping in the forward department at the moment, so the press are linking them with any forward they can think of, but Newcastle aren’t really in the habit of paying British market prices for players - so that seems unlikely.

Hooper is a good finisher, he deserves to be accredited for that, but Celtic’s asking price for him will probably classify the player as a risk for Premier League clubs. Don’t see it.

3 Comments

And don’t compare Henrik Larsson with Gary Hooper, because it’s not the same critique - Larsson was a Swedish international with indisputable ability who came from the Eredivisie, whereas Hooper has never played above the third level in English football.

While I get what your you’re saying, is playing in the Champions League every other week in front of 60,000 fans for a globally recognised & massively supported club not a high enough “level” for you? This is the same critique Henrik Larsson used to get until after moving in the twilight of his career, both Barcelona (for whom he won the European Cup) and Manchester United were sorry to lose him. The English mindset is not likely to change though I guess.